The Great Escape

Chapter 1: Carter

Chapter 1, each chapter will be in the perspective of one of the three boys. Carter, Warren, or Mikey. The pic of this chapter is Carter. This story is special to me and it also goes hand in hand with my friend's book Anesthetic by TheStarwolf85 you should definitely go follow her and read her stories I'm #obsessed. Anyway, here's Chapter 1 of The Great Escape
•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_"I'm going to do it...I'm going to go through with this. I need this." I tell myself as I swallow another pill. "They don't need me. I'm not good enough anyway." Finally I take a deep breath and shove a handful of pills into my mouth. About that same time my younger brother Harlem and my older sister Nicola bust in through my bedroom door. I rush to swallow the pills but Nicola quickly yanks my mouth back open and almost all the little pink pills fall out. I quickly swallow the rest before she can stop me. "Just let me go!" I beg her. She shakes her head crying. "I want to die! I don't want to live anymore!" I yell at her. My step brother Nero stands at the door, his hands shaking as he dials 911 on the phone. I struggle against Harlem and Nicola but it's no use. I'm too weak now. Hopefully I can die before the ambulance gets here. My mom runs in the room and stops right beside Nero in the door. She is staring at me in shock. My step dad Steve takes the phone from Nero and continues telling the police what is happening. Maybe he will take a long time. Maybe... After that everything goes dark. Peace.
Then I'm waking up. I'm not supposed to wake up. The pills were supposed to stop my heart. Why am I awake? I open my eyes to see a bright white light shining down at me and I quickly shut my eyes again. I try and move my head to the left but it starts pounding. "Shit." I mumble aloud. After cautiously opening my eyes slowly again, all I can see is white. There are white walls. A white bed sheet. A white table beside me. A big machine is beside me. It is beeping steadily. "Carter?" Somebody asks on the other side of me. "Carter are you awake?" She asks. I turn my head to see my older sister sitting beside me in a chair. "Carter, don't let them take you away!" She says quickly. "They want to take you away." "Who?" I mumble. "Mom and Steve and the doctors. They said it could help you if you were around other boys with your same 'condition'." Before she can continue, my mom, Steve and Harlem come in. "What were you thinking?" Harlem explodes angrily. The noise makes my head throb. "Wanted to die." I say. I can see pain clear on his face. "Peggy and Steve McMurry?" A doctor asks, sticking his bald head through the door. "Yes?" Steve asks. "You two are the parents of...Carter right?" The Doctor asks. Steve shakes his head "No, Peggy is the mother. I'm merely the step father." "Oh, I apologize. I am Dr. Erik Valentino." He introduces himself. "We pumped most of the drugs out of his system. He will be physically healthy again soon." Dr. Valentino says. "What do you mean physically?" Harlem asks. The doc smiles sadly at my little brother. "Your brother is not mentally healthy. His body will be okay, but his mind is not." I roll my eyes "My mind is fine!" I say grumpily. The doctor hardly glances at me. "Peggy, Steve, I need you two to come with me to fill out some paper work. There are two ways we can do this. You can sign him in willingly or we can go through the law. Your choice." Doctor Valentino says. My mom nods sadly and follows him out, with Steve hot on her heels. "What were you thinking you idiot!" Nicola says loudly. "Now you are going away! To a hospital! We won't be able to visit you..." Harlem finishes. "I'm sorry Harlem, Nicola." I say. Nicola glares at me "No you're not. Your just sorry you didn't die." Ouch...that hurt a little. I must have flinched because she sighs and apologizes. "I'm sorry Carter. But what happened to you? What happened to the happy little Carter I used to know?" She asks. "Life." I reply. After that I just stop answering their questions. I stop listening to everything, except the slow, steady rhythm of my heart monitor. Why won't it just stop? Why can't it just ring with a flat line?
~
"Time to go." Dr. Valentino says. I roll my eyes. "Trust me Carter. This will help you." He says reassuring. "I don't need help." I growl. He smiles pityingly at me "The boys here in your wing understand what you're going through. They are going through the same thing." I roll my eyes again. After hugging my brothers and sister and saying goodbye to my parents, I ended up here in the back of Dr. Valentino's car on the way to be dropped off somewhere so they can take me to the Psychiatric Hospital. "You may not see how it is going to help, but I promise it will." Dr. Valentino tells me. I just snort and roll my eyes again.
After being transferred to the back of an ambulance type car, I am then checked to make sure I don't have anything I could use to kill myself or another. This includes my shoe and hoodie strings, my beanie, etc. After all of this, I go through a metal detector and then taken to a separate room to change into white clothes. White t shirt, white pants, white slip on shoes. They apparently let you keep one pair of normal clothes, for the day you get out.
A nurse leads me out into the hall and back to Dr. Valentino who is talking to another man. "Dr. Hugh, this is Carter Murphy. Carter, Dr. Hugh. He will be your personal therapist and also your group therapist." I just stand there while Dr. Hugh reaches out to shake my hand. He pulls his hand back smoothly as if he is used to being rejected. "It is a pleasure to meet you Carter. Have you met any of the other boys yet?" I shake my head. "Okay. I will take you to meet them. Thank you Erik, I will see you again I'm sure." Dr. Hugh says shaking Dr. Valentino's hand. Dr. V nods back.
Dr. Hugh proceeds to show me where everything is. "We have the cafeteria over on the left, that starts breakfast 7 o'clock AM and ends at 9 AM then lunch starts at 12 o'clock PM to 1 o'clock PM, then last is dinner and it starts at 5:30 PM and ends at 6:45PM." I nod and we continue walking. He continued telling me where the nurses station is and the bedrooms. Each room is shared with a partner. There is one bathroom in each room. One shower, one toilet, one sink. Then he shows me his office and the conference room where he does private and group therapy. "You will be notified when those will be. After 7PM there will not be any therapy, that is when you go join the boys playing games or watching movies, etc. You will also take your prescribed medicine before you leave the Rec room for the night. Any questions?" I shake my head. "Okay, let's go to the rec room, that's where most of the boys are right now."
As we near the room, I hear loud voices. Some seemingly shouting, and others talking normally. "Boys?" Dr. Hugh says knocking on the door. All the boys stop talking and look up. There is like 10 in here at the moment. "What's up Doc?" One of the boys asks. Dr. Hugh chuckles then says "We have a new patient. His name is Carter, make him feel welcomed." He gives the boy who spoke up earlier a pointed look. The boy only smiles innocently. Dr. Hugh shoves me in the room and shuts the door behind me. Rather than staring awkwardly, the boys go back to what they were doing before. I just stand there for a minute before two boys wave me over. "Hey Carter." One of them says. "I'm Warren Coltrane. This is Mikey Rhett." I nod and give them a small smile. Warren seems really friendly and cheerful. Mikey seems shy and kind of fidgety. "Why are you here?" Warren asks. "I tried to kill myself again." I answer pretty bluntly. "Yeah, we all know how that goes." Mikey says quietly. "What about you guys?" I ask "Why are you here?" Dr. Hugh sticks his head in the door and says "Mikey, come on, it's personal therapy time." Mikey looks genuinely terrified, but gets up anyway. Warren gives him a pitiful look.
"I'm here because I tried to kill myself one time, and I have a 'severe self harm issue', and I'm also bipolar and have deep depression swings." Warren says finishing what he was going to say. I nod. "How long have you been here?" I ask him. He thinks for a minute before saying "Um...I don't know exactly. I was admitted on the 27th of May. What is today?" I blink a little shocked. I expected him to count the days until he gets out. "It's June 30th." I reply. Warren looks surprised. "Oh." he says looking down. I nod. "I don't know how much longer I will be here. I've apparently been doing well. I don't want to kill myself again but my bipolarness hasn't gotten much better. I just take meds for that." He says. I nod again. "Time for bed boys!" A nurse says entering the room "Meds, then bed." "I thought there were no therapy sessions past 7pm. Why did Mikey go?" Warren looks at me for a second, biting his lip thoughtfully. "Mikey is a special case." He replies before shoving the pills the nurse gave him into his mouth and swallowing them with a gulp of water. Warren then walks out. I end up taking two pills. One for depression, and one for sleep. After that, I'm led to my dorm and immediately fall asleep without a though about my roommate.